The need for health care is growing in our society for a number of reasons. For example, the population is becoming older and the methods for treating diseases are becoming more advanced. Further, diseases which are related to the modern way of living are increasing at a high rate. Examples of such diseases are stress, fatness and drug addiction. As a consequence, the costs for care are growing and accordingly the available resources, in terms of money and competence, should be used in an efficient manner.
Traditionally, and still today, resources are planned in relation to the number of persons receiving care or the number of beds in a care unit. Thus, two care units having equally many beds will also have equally many staff members. Since the staff resources per patient in this way become equal, this may have as a result that severely ill patients receive too little care in comparison to patients having only a mild care need. Thus there is a need for improvements for controlling staff resources in health care.